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Saturday, July 7, 2012

Dark Knight Rises Triple Barrel Grapnel: Errrr

Mattel, is one of the biggest toy companies in the world, but to date I've never seen them recently embrace the toy gun market. Having the rights to the DC super hero market, and more importantly the movie tie in to the upcoming "Dark Knight Rises" Batman movie, Mattel have released the "Triple Barrel Graphel" gun that shoots three shots at once (!!!) which is ridiculously expensive at around 35 bucks- as most licenced products tend to be (like Star Wars gear) I picked one up for 15 (still over priced in my opinion) to see just how good it was..

Not very it seems. More after the jump.

The Triple Barrel Grapnel comes with the blaster and 3 "Bat Missiles" which look a lot like a whistler dart; which is a good thing, because it does mean traditional Nerf darts do fit inside this gun. It's designed to resemble Batman's Grapnel, and uses pull back cocking mechanism, sort of Nitefinder-ish. The aesthetics are kinda cool I guess, and would probably lend itself for a pretty decent looking Steam Punk style paint job.

I don't crack blasters open normally, but I am considering doing it with this gun as it's an interesting feeling trigger- unlike with Nerf blasters where the trigger is quite firm, the Grapnel is quite loose to touch. It also has the "unique" triple barrel action of firing 3 darts at the same time.

It's relatively solid, but doesn't feel as tight or as firm as a Nerf blaster. The cocking mechanism is un comfortable to wield, and the hand grip is quite short to hold for big hands. It's not the most ergonomic gun around by any means.

Now the sad part- performances are WOEFUL. I'd be surprised if you could really say it went further than 5 metres- All three darts sort of dribble out and drop pretty quickly which is pretty disappointing given the price of it. While the 3 at once dart firing action is novel, it's not that useful, though with some performance mods, it might be able to be modded and attached to another blaster as a shot gun/ grenade launcher secondary.

Sooo.. why are the performances so bad? I'm no science guy, but cracking one of these open (and I tell ya, this is not easy as they use GLUE so I basically had to destroy the tip of it to get it open) it looks like they're basically using the same mechanism to fire a Nitefinder.. but having to distribute the force amongst not just one, but three barrels/darts. That and maybe the spring is weak. Who knows? It's just not good:P

It's over priced and below ordinary in performances- I can't say I'd recommend this to anyone unless you A) get it for cheap- B) plan to modify it or C) are a really massive Batman toy fan. Otherwise.. i won't lie- it ain't great. As always- we buy so u don't have to:D

Available at most toy stores atm for around 30-35 bucks AUS, though I got mine for 15 from KMart during sale time.

Looks like it might fit some small air tanks for each barrel...I don't think basic mod potential is great. Even with AR removal etc, I think the plunger is too small to get any proper power for 3 barrels.

Bought this for $20 at a Barnes and Noble. My friend and I modded it by removing the barrels and replacing them with PVC (we lacked a drill at the time). Now it fires about 20 feet with the new barrels, granted there is always one that lags behind. We intend to replace the PVC with brass soon in hopes that it fires a bit better.

A toy blaster resource; from a kidult's perspective living in an Australian inner city apartment. Focusing on out- of- the- box foam dart, laser tag and water guns with the odd two player co-op game thrown in for good measure:)